Campden Hill, London, c.1950

Brandt's earliest nudes were quite distinct in character from the more abstracted compositions -- such as the stylised close-ups of body details on pebbled beaches -- with which he subsequently became so strongly associated. These early subjects are dark and claustrophobic, revealing aspects of his own perverse imagination as well as reflecting a multitude of external inspirations such as the distorted perspectives of Citizen Kane, the baroque chiaroscuro lighting of Peter Rose Pulham, and the contained or dislocated tensions within strands of 19th century literature, from Wuthering Heights to Alice in Wonderland.